1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadband wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for cooperative transmission/reception in a broadband wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Multi-User (MU) Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technique enables a plurality of users to share the same time-frequency resource and to transmit and receive signals over a plurality of antennas at the same time. Currently, communication system standards such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard define specifications to support the MU MIMO technique. However, even when the MU MIMO is supported, interference still occurs in an overlapping area between cells or sectors of a base station and this interference degrades the performance. To address the interference, a scheme for two or more base station to cooperatively transmit and receive signals at the same time to and from a mobile station traveling in the edge of the cell or the sector is suggested, which is referred to as a cooperative transmission scheme.
As discussed above, the cooperative transmission scheme can mitigate the interference of the mobile stations traveling in the edge of the cell or the sector and enhance the system throughput. However, there is no specific method suggested for the cooperative transmission.